Maxim Afinogenov avoids arbitration

On Tuesday, the Sabres came to terms with Maxim Afinogenov, who was scheduled for arbitration on Friday. The two sides agreed to a three-year deal worth $10M. The 26-year old right wing will make $3M in 2007, and $3.5M the following two seasons. This came as very good news to Sabres fans, who were fearing that an arbiter might have awarded the Russian with a Briere-like deal. My late June prediction of $2.75M wasn't far off the mark.

Although he's often been castigated for "failing to finish", Afinogenov had a career best 22 goals, and led the team in points (73) and assists (51).

The Sabres are awaiting word on the JP Dumont case, which was held Monday. They'll know sometime today what the arbiter decided. The only remaining case on the schedule is that of Adam Mair. That kid made the league minimum $450k last season, and won't be in line for much of a raise. I'm not sure what he's thinking. He's scheduled for Friday. After that hearing is done, and an award given, the Sabres will have 48 hours to decide what to do with Danny Briere. At first I guessed that they'd sign-n-trade him, but the more I think about it, the less I actually believe that. Everything has gone well with the arbitration stuff, so they have more cap room to work with.